Sometimes you can feel like a fish out of water. Even in your own pond.

Emerson and John meet on the boardwalk as the moonlight dances off the Chesapeake Bay.

She thinks he’s gorgeous and comes down with a case of instalove. He thinks she’s a panhandler and gives her five dollars.

The embarrassment is enough to send tattoo-sleeved and turpentine-stained antiques restorer Em running for a life makeover. The only problem is she’s spent the last decade looking after everyone else in her little town, and now she’s totally forgotten how to self-care.

Adding to that garbage heap of a situation is tonight’s blind date.

Of course, it turns out to be with the man who mistook her for homeless. And, of course, he’s a clean-cut navy test pilot stationed a stone’s throw from her antiques shop. All the whiskey and chocolate in the café can’t help the awkwardness between Em and this cold, stoic modern Mr. Darcy.

Fortunately, their tiny, tight-knit community won’t let one (or two) bad nights come between a couple everyone knows is uncannily perfect for each other.

John is the golden boy, the prodigal son finally returned home to the beloved island, but she’s been there all along holding everyone together. Em and John’s chemistry creates more sparks than a jet’s afterburners, but they’re just too different. If she tries—and fails—at this relationship, she might not just lose the guy; she might lose her whole found family.

Unless she decides to trust John to help her navigate, Em might be stuck circling the runway in a loveless holding pattern.